Rob and Big Forty Year Old Teens

Another "Soapbox Sermon" by In The Doghouse, this is where my kids start rolling their eyes... NOt Rob and Big...we love them! What if they see this article, Mom, please.....

When did it become acceptable to make irresponsibility and destruction entertainment? How is a blatant waste of time and resources suddenly worthy of viewing, without feeling disdain or contempt? When did we as a viewing public start to embrace disrespect and lack of courtesy and excuse it as "humor"?

These and many more of the same types of questions were brought to my mind last night, as I completely flushed one hour of my life literally "down the toilet" by watching a television show on MTV called "Rob and Big."

For those of you unfamiliar with this series, it is a "reality" show depicting the life of professional skate boarder Rob Dyrdek who lives with his best friend and body guard, Christopher "Big Black" Boykin.

In the true sense of "reality" they have two pets, one is a miniature horse that they have named "mini-horse" and the other is a pet bulldog named "Meaty." Other characters in the show include Rob's cousin or "assistant" named Drama, and Big's friend Bam Bam.

In the course of the show last night I was disgusted in so many ways, they can only be described one at a time.

This particular episode was one in which Rob celebrated his 40^th birthday. The scene opened with Big and Bam Bam putting a party hat and glasses on the back end of "Meaty" the dog and bringing him in to wake up Rob, by rubbing the dogs smelly butt in Rob's face. This allowed for another theme to continually run throughout the show besides the main birthday theme, of an attempt to clean the dogs "trap door" and get rid of the stench. The first attempt to try and get this job done was made by trying to wash "the trap door" with a common garden hose, but I think I will leave the rest to your imagination.

The next scene is played out as they all sit by the pool and devour hot wings. Rob then expresses to Big that his only wish for his birthday is for Big to win the "hot wing eating championship" and bring him home the trophy. Later in the show, a competition is held at a local bar in which Big is entered, but unfortunately loses. No matter, while the winner is not looking, they simply STEAL the trophy and bask in their glory by making Rob drink out of it for the rest of the evening.

Since it is Rob's birthday he gets to choose his activities for the day, and his choice is to spend the day skateboarding. We are then shown a local high school with signs pointing out the fact that skating is not allowed. The poor high school security guard tries to enforce the rules, while Rob runs around him like a "clown in the circus" act taunting him and making him look foolish. To make sure that the security guard doesn't catch him Big, who certainly lives up to his name, runs interference. All the while the students laugh at the guard as he attempts to maintain order. The obvious disregard for rules and authority is apparent as Rob escapes to his "Murdered Out Truck" at the end of his fun and drives away.

The next adventure for the day is the trip to the tattoo shop for birthday tattoos. Rob chooses the word "relentless" to be tattooed to his forearm while Big after getting his ear pierced, simply has his own logo imprinted on his forearm. Returning home they dress completely in white and head out to the competition mentioned earlier. After the competition they go to a club that has been totally rented out for Robs birthday where women are dressed in white bikinis and other similar outfits and drinking abounds. Remember this person is now turning 40 and is such a role model for the youth.

Returning home, Rob finds a three tiered chocolate birthday cake similar to that of a wedding cake on his kitchen table. Instead of celebrating by eating the cake, he and Big engage in an all out food fight, throwing chocolate cake everywhere, ending in a plunge in the outside swimming pool. No matter however, Drama the slave cousin will simply have to clean it up, after all that's what he gets paid for isn't it.

I guess the beginnings of it must be credited to the brilliant forerunners like Johnny Knoxville and Bam Margera, as they came up with the entertaining show Jackass, where they certainly made one of themselves. With the help of Steve-o and Wee-man the antics of these two became so popular they made it to the big screen.

In fact, Bam Margera then broke off and created his own show, Viva La Bam wherein he exhibits a general lack of respect to his mother and father, Phil and April and his uncle "Don Vito." We would be remiss if we didn't also credit the famous Wildboyz, Steve-O and Chris Pontius in this downfall of entertainment as they assess the "endowment" of themselves and the animals they taunt for their viewing audience.

Most certainly we would have to thank MTV for the influence they have had in regards to shaping the morals and values of an upcoming future generation, the future leaders of our world.

I guess ultimately though we would have to thank ourselves, the viewing public, for first allowing, then tolerating, and now embracing this form of entertainment.

The show, Rob and Big, is just one more piece of evidence we are given to prove that money CAN turn life into one big game. Yes, I guess the more money you have, the more reckless you can be. Oh, and by the way, you really don't have to play by the rules either.